Gary Neville speaking at The Fire Station in Sunderland
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00:00 [Applause]
00:15 Wow, did you ever get a reception like that at a stadium of light?
00:18 No, no, never.
00:22 I look back at your career again, Sunderland, actually, you only got beaten once.
00:26 So you did always have...
00:28 Oh, I don't remember.
00:30 Don't remember? I don't remember.
00:32 Do we get any massive ones?
00:34 I remember having an argument with Adrian Heath and Peter Reid once at Roman Park,
00:37 the first time I played there, but I don't remember getting beat, but we obviously did.
00:41 OK, well I'll have to look at that, I'll give you the details.
00:44 I'll start with an easy one to get the audience on side.
00:47 Would you like to see Sunderland back in the Premier League?
00:51 Yes, I would.
00:54 Growing up at Manchester United, it was a given that you played at Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Newcastle,
01:00 you played many games at Bradford, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Leeds United,
01:07 and that you played six, seven times with me at Burst Services, we'd travel up in the coach and go north.
01:14 And then in the last few years, I mean obviously Leeds came back in momentarily,
01:22 Newcastle obviously are back in now, but there's no doubt that the shift that's always been there,
01:29 so if you like, south of England to the north, I think it's happened in the Premier League,
01:34 where the investment into Premier League clubs has occurred more in the south of England.
01:39 There was a time a good few years ago where there was no representation from either the north-east or Yorkshire,
01:45 and that was, I mean I highlighted it at the time quite a few times, that it was scary,
01:49 because like I say, my early years at United were based around travelling as much north as it was south,
01:53 and that's what the Premier League was, the top division in our country, there was an inequality to it.
01:58 We accept the fact that it's never going to be, it may no longer be the local family owning the club like it was maybe 50, 60 years ago,
02:05 and where that still happens, great, we accept that I think, but what we don't accept is the disconnect
02:10 between the ownership and the values and the principles, and the lack of understanding of the values and principles
02:15 that exist in the local community and where the fan base are at. It can happen in politics, it does happen in politics,
02:21 but it can happen in football clubs, and it's unacceptable, it's not something that I like,
02:25 and that's why I call it out wherever I go and I see an ownership that isn't connected to a football club.
02:30 But thankfully I think we're on the right tracks again here now.
02:32 Brilliant, and I think that leads nicely into, I remember watching you live when you talked about the European Super League plans
02:39 which had been announced that morning, I'll quote you back on some of what you said,
02:42 I think it was fair to say that Gary had strong views on this, you called it a "disgusting and disgraceful, pure greed,
02:48 a criminal act against football fans", and he went on to call big club owners behind the ESL plan "impostors, jokes and bottle merchants".
02:58 And you've even written a book haven't you called it "People's Game" about how we safeguard the game that we all love.
03:06 So the ESL plans have gone away, but do you still fear for the future of football as you would like it to be?
03:13 Or are you more confident in that?
03:14 No, I mean I'm sat here as a Premier League football player who has benefited enormously from the wealth in the Premier League,
03:20 and you know I absolutely...
03:23 This has been an absolutely fascinating insight, some real inspiration there, we've touched on business,
03:28 we've touched on leadership, we've touched on politics, and of course we've had a nice little delve into football there as well.
03:35 Can we give a massive round of applause for Gary?
03:38 [Applause]